The Haunted Theatre
by hifun55
Summary: This is a 'twisted' short story like the Twilight Zone stories that involves 5 teenagers and a so called haunted Theatre, but is it REALY haunted, if so who's haunting it?


Author's note: OK, this story is a short story with a twisted ending that I did for a class of mine this year, I'm in 7th grade and I made an 89 on it. Enjoy! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------  
The "Haunted" Theatre  
  
Just south of Main Street in a small quiet town in Minnesota is a grimy old "haunted" theatre. The huge doors leading inside are painted a wine red that seems to shimmer in sunlight, right outside those doors stood Nate, Sam, Cat, and Callie, dwarfed by comparison to those huge iron doors. These four, 14 year old friends who had been close since the 4th grade, were about to witness and participate in the beginnings of the strange happenings of The Grand Carousel Theatre. Nate stepped forward, he seemed to be the leader of the 4, to open the door, but suddenly had a bad gut feeling and feared for the girls, "Do you really think we should do this just for a stupid dare, I mean isn't it a little.... over the top?" he asked as he turned to face his friends. Sam sighed, then smiled at him "Nate you don't need to try to protect us, we are not going to chicken out of a simple dare, come on!" Nate turned back around hesitantly, suddenly hearing a small whispering, but realizing it was just the wind he reached out his hand and opened the huge doors. Cat let out a small gasp of awe and surprise, and at that their journey began.  
  
In the doorway stood a girl, she looked around 14. She was tall, with her curly red hair pulled back, and she was wearing jeans and a T-shirt with a picture of the entrance hall that she was standing in printed on it. The entrance hall was a huge room with a spiral staircase on either side leading up to the balcony and the hallway that led to the up-stairs box seats. The stair rail had an elegant design on it and the steps themselves were covered in carpet that was the same color of the doors that Nate had just opened. The walls of the entrance hall were painted a golden-brown, and had elegant hand-crafted concrete framework around the top and bottom of the room. On each side were 3 doors that were painted the same wine red color that seemed to be everywhere the four friends looked. Also there was a fresh scent of spices, the smell mad the room feel warm and inviting.  
  
The girl looked at them inquiringly, then murmured, "Hello I'm Cassie. I work here as the theatre caretaker. May I ask who you are and what you are doing here?"  
  
Nate was the one that spoke up first, "I'm Nate, that is Cat, Callie, and Sam." He replied pointing to each one in turn, "We're here to fulfill a dare, this place is never used, so is there anything wrong with that? Wait a second.... Aren't you a little young to be a caretaker of such a gigantic theatre?"  
  
"Yes, I am kind of young, but my parents passed away a few years ago and I have to take over their job as caretaker. Besides I absolutely love this place, I live here, and have lived here all my life. I don't mind if you fulfill your dare, just don't make a mess of the place! OK? Is your dare to spend the night in the "haunted" theatre? I get that one a lot!" Cassie laughed at the silliness of the townsfolk being afraid of the theatre, that was why no one used this place anymore.  
  
"Yeah. Do you mind showing us around?" Callie asked.  
  
"Sure I'll show you around, follow me."  
  
Cassie turned around and led them through the closest door on their right. The others followed her as they entered a hallway full of ads for all the films that ever played in that theatre. Cassie showed them around the whole theatre explaining where they were and why certain things were there. They found that all the rooms were painted an olive green, and the halls were painted a red that was a little lighter than that wine red of the main doors. Cassie also showed them every room, stopping at one that included 3 beds. On the door there was a small gold plaque that said "Cast Bedroom I." The beds were king sized except the one on the left, which was only a full but they were all quite comfortable, "You can sleep here," Cassie stated then she left, their tour was over. "I get this one!" Nate said as he jumped onto the bed in the middle. Cat and Sam shared the bed on the right and Callie got the full sized bed on the left.  
  
The friends soon realized that it was no where near time to start settling down, but they were hungry. After making sure that they knew the way to get back to their bedrooms they went out into the hall to find Cassie's bedroom, she had given them directions and they had become good friends in their 3 hour tour, so Nate suggested they see if Cassie wanted anything. Two minutes later they were knocking on her door, no answer, they knocked again and yet again no answer.  
  
"Goodness gracious, where is she?" Callie questioned as she pushed her way up to the door, "Lets just make sure she isn't... asleep or something."  
  
She opened the door and found the room behind it empty. "Oh, no!" exclaimed Cat, "She told us she'd be here for the next hour and a half. Maybe we should go looking for her!"  
  
"Good idea, lets go!" Nate replied.  
  
The four decided to start in the entrance hall, once they were there they split up. Nate went through the middle left door, Sam went through the one opposite, Cat went into the right hall that was closest to the entrance and Callie took the left one. The others went into the theatre itself, and they decided that they would search there together, in 2 hours.  
  
Nate searched frantically but couldn't find anything that might help them. Cat found a caretaker's chart of the jobs to do in the theatre but not the caretaker herself. Callie... well she walked around every room on her hallway and found a small, musty, secret passage way that led to the next room, in the passage way was a pizza box and a blanket, so Cassie must have been here recently she thought. Sam found a book with floor plans for a hallway under the stage, her time was up when she found it and she ran all the way back to the entrance hall. "I got it, I got it!" she shrieked as she entered the entrance hall and saw the annoyed look on her friend's faces. "We have to search under the stage! See?!" She waved the booklet in their faces and they looked at it questioningly. Nate took it out of Sam's hand and flipped through it, "But why didn't she tell us about this hallway?' he finally asked.  
  
"Maybe she didn't know!" Callie suggested, "No that can't be right she's the caretaker. Maybe she just didn't want us down there."  
  
"What are we waiting for?" Cat yelled then ran into the theatre room and straight up to the stage. The others shrugged at each other and ran after her. "How do we get there, Nate?"  
  
"Let me see... oh here it is: 'There is a trapdoor under the curtain around the bottom of the stage. You will have to find the button that is on the stage that opens it, the button is small and transparent as a ghost on the stage floor.'" He read, "Well let's start looking!"  
  
They all climbed up onto the stage and divided it between themselves so that they could cover more ground quicker. Within 10 minutes they had found the button and the booklet was right, it was as transparent as a ghost, but luckily Sam and Cat had really sharp eyes.  
  
Nate pressed the button and the trapdoor opened, "Let's hurry! I'm a little spooked." So they ran down to where the trapdoor was and crawled under it. The first door they came to Sam opened and there stood a tall transparent figure, it looked exactly like Cassie!  
  
"Hey guys, how'd you find me?" the figure asked, it sounded exactly like Cassie also.  
  
"Cassie?!" Cat asked as she entered the room rather sheepishly.  
  
"Yes, I'm the ghost that haunts this place, my parents weren't the only ones that died that night, I did. But like I said I love this place." Cassie answered  
  
The ghost of Cassie was as transparent as the button to open the trapdoor. She looked much freakier now that she was herself. But that was just the beginning of the strange happenings in The Carousel Theatre. 


End file.
